The Classic Commercial Vehicles (Bus, Trucks etc) Thread

This is a discussion on The Classic Commercial Vehicles (Bus, Trucks etc) Thread within Vintage Cars & Classics in India, part of the BHP India category; Speedy, i hope you have pic of that old American Army truck you saw in Pune long back ???...

thats exactly what i asked Karl to do. its the same truck i was refering too. sorry i had not taken any pictures of it, so hopeing Karl would.

As I said before, you have to give me more precise directions...there is no classic truck, nor has there been one in the recent past at the East Street garage you seem to speak of. Perhaps its another place.

As I said before, you have to give me more precise directions...there is no classic truck, nor has there been one in the recent past at the East Street garage you seem to speak of. Perhaps its another place.

its the same place you speak of i think. when you head to the rear gate, which is like a small lane on your left now there is a wall made the car stands inside that there is also a vintage tractor there. last i saw the truck standing there 5 yrs ago. it was in the same place and cannot be moved.

Two weeks back when i came to bangalore, saw something like this. I was on a walkway over the bus station, so couldn't make out exactly. is this from bangalore?

The history of the bus I remember in brief from whatever I read (from the board that was there) long time back is that it is a 'Jathra special' bus that used to operate to temple town of Banashankari. Jathra means 'Village fair' (in Kannada). And the Banashankari is not the one in Bangalore, but the one near Badami close to Bijapur in North Karnataka. The place shares the name of presiding deity Banashankari.

The intention of KSRTC is good in preserving it but the method that is followed is very crude. preservation doesn't mean only a coat of paint a year, but should be shielded from elements, which is not happening. There must have been at least a shelter on top.

cheers
Bullfrog

Last edited by Bullfrog : 28th November 2007 at 14:53.
Reason: spelling mistake

Someone was talking about Tata Mercedes-Benz earlier in this thread. That made me nostalgic since throughout my childhood I had the opportunity to go to school in a Mercedes Benz Bus. Among other vehicles owned by the company where my father used to worked there was a blue coloured weired looking looking bus which we used to call "Blue Van". That was our school bus. The blue van was none other than a Mercedes Benz bus manufactured by then TELCO. Now that was about 10 years back when I had left that come and moved to Calcutta..I dont exactly remember the model no. but I think it was a T316. I googled for the model no. but got no match. Guess in India they used to have a different naming convention. I always wanted to buy that vehicle and restore it..but I guess that'll remain a dream forever.

Here more or less how she looked (this is the O321 though):

Basic differences..the one that I used to travel in had...one passenger door in the mid section of the left side of the coach. Window panes would move horizontally and not vertically. It was front engined vehicle. Most likely it was based on a Truck chassis.

P.S. If someone is interested in acquiring and restoring the vehicle which I guess is now in worst possible condition may p.m. me for details. I'll be forever obliged to the person who shall restore this bus..

You must hunt out the bus and get some pictures before it dissapears. In fact the St Helenas school in Pune used to use one of these as well, I last saw it 2 years back I wonder if they still have it. Im also told of one rusting away in Pune, will look for it soon.

A minibus much like this one used to lie at Bandra as well, but Im told was recently sold.

You must hunt out the bus and get some pictures before it dissapears. In fact the St Helenas school in Pune used to use one of these as well, I last saw it 2 years back I wonder if they still have it. Im also told of one rusting away in Pune, will look for it soon.

guys i used to have 2 Mercedes buses (24 seaters) and a few trucks in the factory way back till 1995. the busses were used to ferry the staff to the station and were decommisioned in 1988. they were replaced and sold to a scrapper from Kurla . i did not understand the value then and my father wanted to keep one bus, but then changed his mind. i wish we would have kept it.

You must hunt out the bus and get some pictures before it dissapears. In fact the St Helenas school in Pune used to use one of these as well, I last saw it 2 years back I wonder if they still have it. Im also told of one rusting away in Pune, will look for it soon.

A minibus much like this one used to lie at Bandra as well, but Im told was recently sold.

Dear Karlo I might sound extremely kiddish but trust me if I had the infrastucture, know-how and money the I would have got hold of the bus long time back and restored it..

Trust me she is beautiful and it's a shame that she must by now be just more than a piece of rusting metal..rusting away under some shed of the Cycle Corpn. of India Ltd., a PSU now shutdown iin Sen-Raleigh,Asansol,W.B.

I never talked about this to anyone because people around me are innocuously clueless about the word "restoration" and would think I'am insane. But in this forum, especially in this thread there are folks who live salvaging and bringing back to life these unattended beauties who are rustying away to shame now. I urge to you that if any of you can take care of this bus..as I've said earlier you would do me a great favour and have me obliged forever...

i missed out on an early dennis fire engine in the early eighties, which was auctioned by the Jhansi fire department, does anone know where it went? i also know of an early Morris minor fire engine that came to one of the western states in the early thirties,now untraceable, that has eluded me for quite some time now!!

Ive spotted this massive and unique Mack truck a couple of times in Pune, apparently belonging to the municipality (it bears Maharasthra Shasan painted on it). The regn reads BYN something, which dates the truck to the mid 50s. The trailor read MHI 5210, I assume it belongs to another truck. It is apparently a very heavy duty carrier, and might even be used to transport tanks, or earth moving equipment, looking at the track grooves on the bed. The very fact that this machine is in regular service inspite of it being half a century old, tells us that it must indeed be a very specialised and potent vehicle.

I snapped these shots while on the move at Baner, and then sped up to get some better shots, but in vain.

karlos, you will be surprised that many of the vehicles in your first post are actually running in the city peripherals here. The Dodge, Bedford, Premier trucks carry bricks, waste etc here without papers, will try to catch them on camera sometime. And that standard 20 is also very much still here.